We have come here from the Philippines to join our voices to the growing
global clamour for justice and a shared responsibility in the way we administer
this planet and make use of its resources.

We have come here to become part of an emerging global conscience one
increasingly aware of our responsibilities to our past, present, and future,
and hopefully able to command the will of nations to do what is right and
just-not only for themselves, but for all humankind and voiceless generations.

But here in Johannesburg, we find ourselves torn once again between
our noblest spiritual aspirations and our basic material drives.

I would like to believe in such a conscience as the culmination of the
social and spiritual evolution of our species, which has lagged far behind
the physical evolution that started here in Africa. Humankind has survived
war and famine, genocide and apartheid, and planet ravaging diseases but
we have yet to surmount our basest instincts: to covet, to plunder, to
keep, to rule over others with little regard for the costs and consequences
of greed and waste.

Ten years ago in Rio, it seemed that we had taken a huge leap forward
in our evolution as a human race. But now we seem to have stalled, or even
taken another step backward, in our failure to deliver on the promises
of Rio, and to secure more new and concrete commitments to sustainable
development as a global responsibility.

We Filipinos are proud to have embraced sustainable development early
on, and to have embodied it in all aspects of our national development
plans. As our President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo often reminds us, poverty
eradication is our highest priority in the Philippines, and we see sustainable
development as a means to conquer mass poverty in our time and to guarantee
prosperity in the future.

We are proud of our record of partnership between government and civil
society in promoting sustainable development.

We have many stories of hope and change to share from our experience:

Of how we have transformed a literal mountain of garbage in a village we
call Payatas from a hellish zone of filth and misery into a new haven of
hope;

Of how, through a measure called "DAO 17," our marginal fishermen can now
cast their nets over their own protected fishing grounds, and how our small
scale miners can now look forward to fairer returns on their backbreaking
labours;

Of how our indigenous peoples have secured their rightful due, in law and
in fact; and

Of how communities in forest areas have taken charge of managing their
own resources.

We have hundreds more such local stories to tell. We have many more hopeful
plans, such as massive reforestation to turn barren land into carbon sinks.
But we believe that here, in Johannesburg, we should seek to write the
bigger story, the global story, one that will imbue us with hope and spur
us into action.

Tomorrow we will adopt a plan that should serve that purpose. But we
must ask ourselves if what we will hear is fresh and inspiring enough.
To be more concrete, we would have wanted a firmer commitment on new
and additional financial resources, building on the Monterrey Consensus.

We would have wanted an explicit statement that globalization, especially
trade, must be made to work for sustainable development. We would have
wanted a stronger and more inspired corporate commitment to this principle.

We would have wanted more ambitious goals and bigger numbers for the
targets agreed, and for such targets to have been set for new renewables.

Still, there is much to build on and to carry forward.

We applaud the recognition of ethics as being central to sustainable
development.

We welcome the interpretation of biocultural diversity as embracing
all living things including people and the many ways they live.

We welcome the reaffirmation of the right of people to information and
to meaningful participation in decision-making.

We will build on the inspiring example of the Filipino teachers and
medical workers who lent their talent and labour to Africa hoping that
such South-South initiatives will attract the interest and support of others.
In this regard, the Philippines will host next year an Asian conference
on protected areas and freshwater conservation in preparation for the World
Parks conference in Durban to mark the International Year of Freshwater.

Mr. President:

As we leave Johannesburg, let us commit ourselves to completing what
we have begun-to achieving the fullness of our humanity, the completion
of our social evolution-so that, paraphrasing the words of a poet from
this beautiful land, our children will sing new songs unknown to us, and
they will walk towards the dawn, the sunshine that is to be.

On behalf of our President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and of the Filipino
people, we thank you, Mr. President, this city of man, Johannesburg, and
all the people of South Africa, for this historic opportunity.